Victoria Vance arrived at Moretti Manor at eight seventeen in the morning wearing a cream-colored dress worth more than Luca Romano's first car.

She also arrived with a lie.

"Darling!" she called as the butler opened the front door. "I came the moment I heard about the attack. Are you hurt?"

Dante stood at the bottom of the staircase, holding a paper cup of coffee he had not touched. He had spent the night searching traffic records and hospital admissions for Elena Bennett. The results were infuriatingly incomplete. A woman matching Elena's description had entered a private clinic in Queens two nights earlier. By the time his people reached it, the patient registry had been wiped.

"Who told you there was an attack?" he asked.

Victoria's smile faltered for a fraction of a second. "Everyone's talking about the blackout."

"The estate's communications were restricted."

"My father has friends, Dante. You know that."

He did. That was precisely the problem.

A squeak came from the stairs.

Lily descended in pink pajamas, one sock, and an enormous pair of sunglasses she had apparently found in a guest bedroom. Mr. Fluffington hung from her elbow. She had insisted on sleeping with the rabbit and with Dante's jacket, which now trailed behind her like a royal cape.

"Daddy," she announced, "your house has too many stairs."

Victoria went white.

Only for an instant. Then she smiled so broadly it looked painful.

"Oh! And who is this precious angel?"

Lily stopped three steps above the floor. She looked at Victoria's face, then her hands, then the small diamond snake coiled around Victoria's wrist.

The sunglasses slid down Lily's nose.

"Snake lady," she whispered.

Dante heard her.

Victoria did too.

"What an imaginative little girl," Victoria said. "Dante, sweetheart, you should have told me you were entertaining guests."

"Her name is Lily."

"How charming. Is she someone's daughter?"

"Possibly mine."

The word possibly seemed to hit Victoria harder than a slap. Her gaze flicked toward the child, then to Dante's face. He saw the calculation begin.

"Well," she said brightly, "that would be wonderful news. Children are such blessings."

Lily's nose wrinkled.

"You don't mean that."

Victoria laughed. "Of course I do."

"Your smile went up but your eyes went down."

Luca, stationed near the doorway, looked sharply at Lily.

She pointed at Victoria's bracelet. "And your snake is looking at me."

Victoria covered the bracelet with her hand. "It's only jewelry, sweetheart."

"Mommy said the bad lady had a diamond snake."

The room fell silent.

Dante placed his coffee on a side table. "Did she?"

Victoria's fingers tightened around her handbag. "I'm sure plenty of women own snake jewelry."

"Not many who know Elena Bennett," Dante said.

Victoria's smile stiffened. "Elena? I thought we agreed not to discuss that woman."

"We agreed to nothing."

Lily came down the remaining stairs. She stood beside Dante and pressed her cheek against his trouser leg. Victoria looked at the gesture as if someone had poured acid on the carpet.

"I brought a present," she said quickly.

A maid carried in a gigantic gift box tied with silver ribbon. Inside sat a limited-edition porcelain doll with silk hair and a wardrobe of miniature designer dresses.

"For you, darling."

Lily examined the doll.

"Can she jump in puddles?"

"Certainly not. She's very delicate."

"Then she's boring."

Luca made a suspicious coughing sound.

Victoria's smile cracked. "Perhaps you're too young to appreciate quality."

Lily looked up at Dante. "Daddy, this bad lady smells like a snake! She wants to push Lily down the stairs!"

Victoria recoiled. "What a disgusting accusation!"

"Lily," Dante said carefully, "did you see her try to push you?"

"No. But she looked at the stairs and then at me, and her mouth did the mean thing."

Dante did not mistake a child's intuition for evidence. Yet he had watched Victoria's eyes follow Lily toward the staircase, and he did not like what he had seen.

"Luca," he said, "keep Lily beside me."

Victoria's voice rose. "You're going to take the word of a toddler over your fiancée?"

"You're not my fiancée by choice."

The words landed cleanly. Victoria's cheeks flushed.

Lily, meanwhile, had noticed the decorative fountain in the adjoining gallery. A row of priceless paintings hung behind it, protected by a concealed fire-suppression and water-mist system. She looked from the fountain to a maintenance panel with a blinking amber light.

Mr. Fluffington's remaining eye flashed.

Lily pressed the rabbit's ear.

A soft electronic chirp sounded. Somewhere in the gallery, an already-faulty controller rebooted. The fountain's pressure regulator stuck open, and an emergency water valve released a spectacular burst over the marble floor.

Water erupted upward.

Victoria screamed.

A sheet of cold, muddy maintenance water crashed over her shoulders, soaking her dress and ruining her carefully arranged hair. The porcelain doll toppled into its box. Luca grabbed Lily and moved her behind a stone column before the spray reached the stairs.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS HOUSE?" Victoria shrieked.

The entire staff froze.

Victoria ripped the ruined ribbon from her wrist. "Do you have any idea what this dress costs? That filthy little brat—"

"Finish that sentence," Dante said.

Victoria turned.

He stood in the doorway, utterly still.

"Dante, I didn't mean—"

"You called her a brat."

"I was startled!"

"And you called her filthy."

Lily peered around Luca's leg. "She said a bad word too."

Dante looked at the soaked woman. "You will apologize."

Victoria stared. "To her?"

"Now."

For a moment, her true expression emerged: contempt, anger, and something very close to fear.

Then she bent stiffly. "I'm sorry, Lily."

Lily considered her. "You still don't mean it."

Victoria straightened. "This is absurd."

Dante gestured toward the entrance. "Your visit is over."

As security escorted Victoria out, her phone slipped from her wet handbag. The screen lit up with a message before she snatched it away.

Luca saw only part of the notification.

ELENA TRANSFER FAILED. SECOND LOCATION COMPROMISED.

He waited until Victoria's car disappeared beyond the gates. Then he turned to Dante.

"Boss. We have a problem."

Dante looked down at Lily, who was carefully wringing water from Mr. Fluffington's ear.

"I know," he said. "Find out who controls that clinic."

"That's not all."

Luca showed him a photograph captured by the entrance camera: Victoria's illuminated phone, the message visible beneath a spiderweb of water droplets.

Dante read it twice.

His face became expressionless.

"Bring me every transfer record connected to the Vance family."

Upstairs, Lily's rabbit emitted a faint click.

A new audio file had saved itself.